to deescalate the situation in gaza. >> rose: the secretary of state travelstocairotomorrowto take part in further negotiations, joining me now is rashid khalidi, he is the edward site professor of modern arab studies in columbia university, in washington dennis ross is with the washington institute for near east policy and a former u.s. envoy to the middle east. >> and abrams on the council for foreign relations a deputy national security advisor for global democracy strategy for president bush. his book tested by zion comes out later this year and i am pleased to have all of them here on this program this evening. i begin with dennis ross, tell me where you think we are at this moment, dennis. >> well, i do think the outline of the cease-fire are probably getting pretty close to being finalized, i don't think they are quite finalized yet, not because the outlines are unclear but because i think there is probably a desire to have the secretary of state make certain that the understandings are understood the same way by all of the parties, number one, number 2, that there are actually p